Collaboration strategies affecting implementation of a cross-systems intervention for child welfare and substance use treatment: a mixed methods analysis.

Background: Collaboration strategies refer to policies and practices used to align operations and services across organizations or systems. These strategies can influence implementation of cross-system interventions focused on improving integration of care, but remain under-specified and under-examined. This study identifies collaboration strategies and the conditions under which they affected implementation of Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START), an evidence-based intervention focused on integrating child welfare and behavioral health services for families involved with both systems.

Specifying cross-system collaboration strategies for implementation: a multi-site qualitative study with child welfare and behavioral health organizations.

Background: Cross-system interventions that integrate health, behavioral health, and social services can improve client outcomes and expand community impact. Successful implementation of these interventions depends on the extent to which service partners can align frontline services and organizational operations. However, collaboration strategies linking multiple implementation contexts have received limited empirical attention.

Benchmarking Trauma in Child Welfare: A Brief Report.

Trauma exposure is common; however, considerably higher rates are reported in some vulnerable groups including adults and children involved in child welfare systems. In this context, early screening and service linkage may ameliorate its negative impact on the physical and mental well-being of adults and children alike. Using data from two Ohio-based child welfare interventions targeting co-occurring maltreatment and substance use (Ohio START and EPIC2), the purpose of this brief report was to first describe the rate of trauma exposure among participating adults (Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs, = 402), children 0-5 years (CTAC, = 271) and youth 6-18 years (CTAC, = 177), and second to benchmark observed rates against reported rates in other child welfare or similar populations across the United States.

Establishing cross-systems collaborations for implementation: protocol for a longitudinal mixed methods study.

Background: Cross-system interventions can help integrate services across different service delivery systems but require organizations to establish strong collaborative relationships for implementation. Contingency theory suggests that the effectiveness of different collaborative strategies (i.e.